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Why Does John Howard Refuse To Say Sorry?

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The ‘Sorry Speech’ Questions
1. Based on the information provided in this spread, give at least three reasons why John Howard refused to say sorry, and place them in order from most to least important.
It is for these reasons that I believe former Prime Minister John Howard refused to say sorry; By publically apologising the government would be admitting culpability, John Howard was reluctant to accept responsibility of others doings and he also believed that Australia’s civilisation began when white people arrived in Australia.
Publically apologising and taking accountability for the theft and mistreatment towards the Indigenous Australians, could potentially cause the government to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars due to compensation …show more content…

The physical and mental abuse inflicted on the Indigenous Australian’s, by the Europeans, is now recognised as, very un-Australian.
The Australian government done the right thing when it came to apologising to the Indigenous Australians. As the first Europeans never apologised for the pain and heartache felt by the Indigenous Australians, it was up to our government to apologise and help mend the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd are amongst the few politicians that have formally apologised to the Stolen Generations and other that were impacted by the settlement. It was not out of guilt that our government apologised, rather to achieve the common goal of, belonging and equality.
The Howard government, when refusing to apologise, were unmistakably on the ‘three cheers’ side of history. In Howards speech presented on the 30 October 1996, he stated ‘… I think we have been to apologetic about our history…’ later going on to say ‘… the Australian achievement has been a heroic one, a courageous one and a humanitarian one.’ The Howard government didn’t seek to apologise fearing if they did, they would be admitting culpability and risked being inundated with claims for compensation, also seeing an apology to be unnecessary due to their absence of involvement in the past events. By no means, were the Howard government required to take ownership of the past events if they were to apologise, however refusing to say sorry was a wrong

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